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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26186626">Death of Death Itself</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennyraylen/pseuds/early%20works'>early works (jennyraylen)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Old Star Wars One Shots [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Death Star, Gen, One Shot, Short One Shot, but really though what did you expect from the title and summary, it's not very emotional though, the main character dies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:34:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>934</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26186626</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennyraylen/pseuds/early%20works</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "Imagine you're a nameless, faceless minion of the Galactic Empire on board the Death Star whilst some jumped-up farm boy is gunning for the exhaust port."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Old Star Wars One Shots [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901638</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Death of Death Itself</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm not very proud of the prose here, since this is pretty old. Still, gotta remain faithful, so I won't edit anything.</p><p>Originally posted September 11, 2018. That's an ironic date, considering the circumstances in this fic...</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kiren was a nobody. A private.</p><p>That's why he was surprised when they called him to fly a TIE-fighter.</p><p>Sure, privates flew TIE-fighters all the time. But not Kiren. He had barely passed his classes, was more of a janitor than anything. He was surprised they kept him on at all. He was too skinny, nearly too short; he had muscle, yes, but not nearly to the extent of most of his comrades.</p><p>For the most part, Kiren was invisible. He stuck to the shadows and was hardly noticed. He was even too much of a nobody for the bullies, even during Imperial flight school when they had been younger and stupider-- stupid enough not to realize they were all on the same side and thought it was a good idea to single out the weakest among them. They didn't realize the weak ones would be gone before long anyway. The Imperial academy wanted only the best.</p><p>Which was why Kiren still wondered why they had kept him.</p><p>But they called for him, and stunned, he obeyed orders. He quickly made his way to the hangar, abandoning the bathroom he had been cleaning like some lowly droid.</p><p>They told him there was an emergency, that they needed all hands on deck. They spoke of a few Rebel X-Wings, and how Lord Vader was up there fighting them himself. Nearly all the other TIE-fighters had been shot down, and Lord Vader needed backup. Kiren had been in just the right place at the right time, and so he had been summoned. They needed him right away, and he was only a few corridors away from the nearest hangar.</p><p>Suddenly, a girl came from around the corner, ramming straight into him. The two of them fell to the ground as a holoscreen jettisoned out of the girl's hands across the hall.</p><p>The girl was straddling him once they landed, and Kiren's face turned a deep red. She quickly stood up, flattening her clothes and holding her head high, avoiding his gaze. Kiren remained on the ground, stunned. The girl was tall, taller than him, even, though that wasn't saying much. Freckles dotted her pale face. A worried expression painted her face as she looked around the room, ignoring Kiren, who was still sprawled on the floor.</p><p>Kiren finally stood up, picked up the holoscreen he had seen her drop, and handed it to her. The silence between them became too long and too awkward, so he broke it. "Are-are you okay?" He stumbled over his words.</p><p>The girl shook her head. "No, I am not okay. How could I be okay?" Her hands shook as she typed something on the screen. "We are about to die. Everyone is if something is not done."</p><p>The words shook Kiren to the bone. He wanted to laugh but couldn't. Everyone was acting strangely, at least the people with more authority who knew what was going on. This girl could be right, though her claims were preposterous. "Why would you say that?" he stuttered. "The Death Star is indestructible! Nothing could kill us here."</p><p>The girl shook her head. "You don't understand. No one understands. It is against all odds this error in the system went unnoticed by everyone but me." She pushed past him and hurried back down the hall.</p><p>"Hey, wait, where are you going?"</p><p>"I am reporting to the head officers posted on this station. I have sent them the important intel already, but they called for me to come in person. I must go now." She hurried off, and Kiren found himself alone once again. It wasn't until he was in the hangar, getting ready to launch his TIE-fighter into space, that he realized he didn't even know her name.</p><p><em>It doesn't matter, </em>he told himself. <em>You'll probably never see her again. This is a big station, and she's most likely much higher in rank than you.</em></p><p>He couldn't shake her image from his mind. Neither could he shake her words. The Death Star, in danger of destruction? Never! What could she have found that could put the station into such peril? It had to be something in the design that was flawed. But what? The station had been designed by only the best in the galaxy. Had a rebel made his or her way into the higher ranks and sabotaged the station from the inside?</p><p>Or was the girl just paranoid, scared of a few X-Wings? That was the most likely explanation, Kiren thought. Then again, they had called him to fight. If he wasn't the last resort, get didn't know what was.</p><p>Kiren flipped a few switches and the TIE's engine came to life. Just then, the ground shuddered beneath him.</p><p><em>That's odd. </em>Kiren had never felt something of that force before. The Death Star was too big for anything to shake the entire station, but just from the way he had felt the vibration he knew everyone had felt it too.</p><p>It didn't matter. Kiren lifted up the TIE along with a few other fighters, but he never made it out of the hangar.</p><p>Unrelenting heat blew across him just as he began to fly forward. He only had a split second to realize what had happened before he was gone. The girl had been right and she hadn't been able to prevent whatever threatened him. The Death Star had exploded, taking him along with it.</p><p>
  <em>The rebels, with their tiny fighters, had won.</em>
</p><p>Kiren felt a strange sort of peace, despite it all, as he slipped out of his body into nothingness.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Fun fact: the girl is Jude Edivon from Lost Stars by Claudia Gray. She discovered the flaw in the Death Star right before it exploded, but failed in stopping Luke in any meaningful way (obviously). We don't know much about her final moments so younger me decided to shove her in here. Go read Lost Stars. It's much better than this.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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